It’s 3-for-Wednesday Reader Shout-Outs. First up: Natalie’s fabulous sofa. She writes:
Pam – I wanted to share with you the couch I purchased on Craigslist yesterday for $75. I have been searching for a mid-century modern couch for a few months now – going to estate sales, garage sales, and craigslist. It is hard for me to find the good items at estate sales since they start on Thursdays and Fridays and I have to work those days. Anyway, I was doing my daily search and came across this gem. I emailed the owner and he still had it! Turns out the couch was his Great Aunt’s main couch from 1952 to 2006 when she passed. When she passed, he got the couch, dining table, dining chairs (which had the matching fabric of the couch), and the beautiful china hutch. The table, chairs, and hutch were not for sale and the only reason the couch was was because the wife didn’t like it. Haha. The owner told me he remembered the couch sitting in the same place all the years he knew his Great Aunt, he even mentioned that his mom, who was born ’53, remembered the couch from way back then. To me the couch looks like it has only been sat on a few times. It has a pull out bed and is the heaviest thing I have ever lifted – even without the cushions and mattress! Under the arm rests there are metal bars that go all the way down the side – one of the pictures shows the first metal bar. And this couch is small to me. I think I am just used to the gigantic couches of today. Anyway, I think this is an amazing find and it matches our $40 record player coffee table (which is in need to a new something or other to make a loud buzzing go away). Craigslist is amazing. Just wanted to share! Thanks! =)
I asked Natalie if there were any labels, she said: “No tag. I looked every where on it. It looks like there used to be one on the mattress but that’s it. Makes me kind of sad that I couldn’t find anything. Any other ideas?” Well, Natalie, no — but we’ll all keep an eye out. That’s a pretty distinctive sofa – and a great story. Congratulations, and thanks for sharing both with us.
adam richards says
Love the couch (fabric not so much, but hey… at least it’s original). Anyway, I think I know what is wrong with your record player. There are electronic components in your record player that go out of whack as they age, they’re called capacitors. Though it could also be a vacuum tube, it’s not as likely (tubes don’t go bad very often). You need to find someone that works on old radios because they know how to safely replace the parts that have gone bad. Oh, and don’t plug it in and turn it on until it’s fixed… once these parts go bad and start buzzing, it’s only a matter of time before they short circuit and smoke starts coming out of your record player (bad stuff, i’ve seen it happen and it makes it that much harder to repair with that kind of damage). If you have a music store in your area, the people there probably knows someone that fixes tube guitar amps and that person would likely be able to fix your record player.
St. Christopher says
That is a cRaZy cool couch! Very unique, even more than the fact that it’s 54 years old. How’s the cushion material? I had dragged a couch and chair out of a basement mid summer a few years ago from an estate sale thinking I might “restore” it. Sad to say it ended up out in the alley after dragging it once again up out of a basement where I had been storing it. It was just too far gone. What I really want is a set like this in a sofa AND loveseat. Seems like they didn’t really do loveseats back then.
Anyway, sweet find and at a GREAT price! Ain’t it just grand when all the appropriate gods smile upon you while at the same time the stars find the time to line up “just so”?
pam kueber says
St. Chris, this did make loveseats – I think they called them apartment sofas. Just very very hard to find sets. These things were super duper expensive in their day. Somewhere on the blog I did a calculation based on an old price list and then applying the CPI. A “nice” sofa back in the day would have cost the equivalent of $4,000-$5,000 today, as I recall. This behemoth — must have been much much more.
Cheryl Lasiter says
Too bad about the dining set not being for sale. Maybe they would part with the matching dining chairs fabric and she could use it to cover chairs or make pillows.
sablemable says
Fabulous sofa! Mom and Dad had one just like it in black with matching armchair.